Activity Up 106 Percent From a Year Ago; Foreclosure Rate Ranks No. 2 in the Nation

IRVINE, Calif. – April 30, 2008 – California continued to lead the nation in foreclosure activity in March, documenting 64,711 properties with foreclosure filings, a 21 percent increase in activity from the previous month, and up 106 percent from the level reported for March 2007, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. One in every 204 California households received a foreclosure filing during the month, the second highest foreclosure rate among the states and 2.6 times the national average.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

“After declining 6 percent the previous month, foreclosure activity in California rebounded 21 percent in March to the highest level we’ve ever reported,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Two-thirds of the month’s activity can be attributed to new default filings, indicating that the state is still reeling from unemployment that is higher than the national average while taking a large hit in terms of both lower home sales volume and price reductions.”

The GoldenState documented more than double the foreclosure activity of its closest competitor — Florida — which reported 30,254 properties with foreclosure filings in March. Ohio had the third highest total for the month, reporting 11,273 properties with foreclosure filings, followed closely by fourth place Georgia, which reported 11,047 properties with foreclosure filings. Texas rounded out the nation’s top five, reporting 10,700 properties with foreclosure filings. The remaining states in the nation’s top 10 for total foreclosure filings in March were Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, Nevada and Colorado.

Top five counties responsible for bulk of state’s foreclosure activity

Five California counties accounted for 57 percent of all foreclosure activity in the state for March. Los AngelesCounty continued to make the single largest contribution, reporting 12,099 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. RiversideCounty came in second, documenting 7,960 properties with foreclosure filings. Neighboring San BernardinoCounty reported the third highest total — 6,182 properties with foreclosure filings. Fourth highest total was documented in San DiegoCounty, where 5,786 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. Once again SacramentoCounty was the only Northern California county in the state’s top five, reporting 4,858 properties with foreclosure filings.

Two Northern California counties post top foreclosure rates for March

San JoaquinCounty tallied the highest county foreclosure rate in the state in March, with one in every 78 households receiving a foreclosure filing for the month — 2.6 times the state average and 6.9 times the national average. StanislausCounty posted the state’s second highest rate, with one in every 80 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — 2.6 times the state average and 6.8 times the national average . The third highest rate in the state was reported in MercedCounty, where one in every 89 households received a foreclosure filing in March — 2.3 times the state average and 6.1 time the national average.

State makes the largest single contribution to nation’s total in March

Total filings in California accounted for 28 percent of the 234,685 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in March. The national total represents a 5 percent increase from the previous month and is 57 percent ahead of the total reported for March 2007. One in every 538 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the county, state and national level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default— Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix, and No. 53 on Inc. magazine’s 2006 Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies, RealtyTrac Inc. (www.realtytrac.com), is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value.

Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, For Sale By Owner, resale and new homes, with more than 1.3 million properties across the country, property reports, productivity tools and extensive professional resources. RealtyTrac hosts nearly 3 million unique visitors monthly and has been chosen to supply foreclosure data to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and the Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal. For more information, visit (www.realtytrac.com).

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.